Media shapes People’s Ideas Today

    

       With At the turn of the century, the lives of the general public underwent a drastic change. In earlier times the right of access to information was limited to the elite and high officials. With the advent of a democratic political system, this belief was revised and the general public was given access to national-level information. Hence came the Media.

          Over the course of the years, Media has greatly evolved. From a means to give people information about happenings around the globe, it has changed to an advertisement fueled mass business. Today Media is so much well-grafted into our lives that it is difficult to imagine day to day existence without it. As much as media is dependent upon people, the people are also dependent upon it as their primary source of information and entertainment. At the end of the day when people tune in their television sets looking for an escape from their mundane everyday lives, they are not just relaxing their minds but are unconsciously are more prone to absorbing the content publicized. Taking the television serials nowadays, it is a common observation that they portray women as weak and being victims of society.

            As a result, the housewives watching those serials will also adopt themselves in the roles of the weaker victims. On the other hand, if strong and well-abled women were shown, who would stand up for their rights, the viewers will try to adopt that in their life and hence emerge as much stronger women themselves.

            The role of media in this respect is very crucial because people unconsciously idealize what they see on television. Hence showing characters with a strong and complete personality will convince people to strive to achieve that in themselves.

             If we tune into news channels today, we will see that yellow journalism has risen alarmingly. It no longer looks like a means to empower people with knowledge but resembles a fishmonger’s market. Each channel in their want to triumph over the other has resorted to cheap tactics.

               Somewhere there are cheap game shows that are an outright insult to the intelligence of any sane human being. Every other news nowadays is a “breaking news”.

                Not even a few months have passed since the dreadful tragedy that took place in Army Public School Peshawar. The parents of those children have not even come to terms with this dreadful reality that media has already “moved on” to more entertaining things.

                Character assassination has become quite easy with this tool of mass manipulation.

Anyone can record an interview and pose questions about anyone quite openly. Though this has empowered the general public, it has also greatly confounded the society which can no longer tell the truth from all the lies.

                  However not everything associated with today’s media is disappointing. Some media campaigns launched in favour of Education have been very well received as they had been very tastefully done. One such example was a show “Chal Parha”(Let’s teach) in which he toured Government schools across the country. His efforts led to an improvement in the schools across the country which was a very favourable step.

              Another example that can be considered while talking about the role of media is the case of Media Trials. A Media Trial is when the official system has overlooked or closed a case of injustice but the media keeps pursuing it until the officials pick up and reconsider the case. One example of such a media trial is of the murder of Jessica Lal, an Indian journalist who was killed by the son of a politician.

              The authorities closed the case on account of lack of evidence but the media kept pursuing until the case was re-opened and the guilty was persecuted. Hence the media brought justice to Jessica Lal and her grieving family. How much media influences thoughts and ideas can be understood by the fact that in developed countries the jury of a well-publicized case is prohibited access to mass media, lest they get influenced and do not make the right decision.

                  Another point to consider is that if the media had not influenced the ideas of people, advertising wouldn’t be such a big business today. Companies invest millions of dollars in advertising because it reaps results and boosts their sales. They even go the extra mile by casting famous celebrities to endorse their products so that people will follow them.

                  Media today had evolved into a mass propagation element. As so many people look up to it for its ideals, it puts a responsibility on the shoulders of the media to put forth content that will bring about positive changes and will affirm constructive ideas in the society.                                                                               (by Naqsh-e-Mansoor)